FATAL MOTOR ACCIDENT

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1930, Page 10

FATAL MOTOR ACCIDENT

YOUNG HAWERA MAN KILLED? PASSENGER’S AWFUL DILEMMA. ' CAR OVERTURNS ON TWO PEOPLE. To be faced with the possibility of dealing death to one person in endeaVs ouring to release another from beneath an overturned motor-car was the dilem* ma in which Mr. M. Nelson, Hawer®, was placed yesterday afternoon in $ tragic accident about two miles sou® of Maxwelltown, near Wanganui. ■ >'

The driver of the car died. He wag Reuben Allan Benbrook, aged 21, enw ployed by McGruer’a, Limited, Ha were. Hie parents reside at Wanganui. Th 4 other occupants of the car, Miss Fred# Buckingham and Mr. Nelson, sustained minor injuries and jghock. The party was travelling towards Wanganui, and. when beyond Maxwell" town on a tortuous stretch of .road th® car skidded, and before it could be straightened went over the bank, overturning in its descent. It landed oA its side against a fence, and when Mr, Nelson scrambled out he discovered that the driver was pinned to the ground with a running board across . the lower portion of his chest, while Miss Buck* ingham was caught up in such a 5061* tion that. had the car been moved it would have rolled on and probably crushed her to death.

All Mr. Nelson could do under the circumstances was to climb to the roadway and stop some passing motorists for assistance. The wrecked car waß goon jacked up bo that Mies Buckingham could be extricated and then rolled clear of Mr. Benbrook, who is believed to have been dead by that time. Mr. Nelson and Miss Buckingham were taken to Hawera. An ambulance from Wanganui arrived later and. took .Mr.. Benbrook’s body- to Wanganui.